Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Netgear Orbi has improved the Wi-Fi in my home significantly (and that is an understatement). I have fiber internet but was only seeing speeds of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps consistently. After installing the Netgear Orbi my speed has gone to 200 Mbps to 300 Mbps (See attached photos). The installation was fairly straight forward. Just a matter of following directions. Took less than 30 minutes. I now have Wi-Fi throughout my home (3,800 sq.ft.) plus outside on front porch and in back yard on the patio and deck. There are lots of options to solve home Wi-Fi issues but I can't imagine any being any easier than the Orbi.

Thanks to folks at BestBuy for explaining how Orbi could solve the problem of weak signal at our home. Orbi is amazing & works great, 10x better than before.

If you’re fed up on wifi dead zones in your home, this Orbi wifi router is the answer! Pros: Super easy setup. Blends in with your décor. Cons: No WPS button. Currently lacks a guest network. (future update?) Expensive. Cannot be wall mounted. I’ve been in my current home for the past 7 years and Ive gone through at least 8 wifi routers trying to solve my spotty and slow wifi. I get suckered every year to purchase the latest and greatest wifi router out there that over promises and under delivers. For once in the last 7 years or searching, the Orbi stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park. I’m not exactly network savvy so I really appreciated how easy it was to setup the Orbi and have total house coverage within minutes. No need to tinker with settings! It comes preassigned with a network name and password. These can be changed via a website but no need if you’re not interested in changing them. The latest fad is to have a 6-8 external antennas so you can “aim” them all around your house to try and eliminate dead zones. The Orbi has no need for external antennas because it utilizes a 2 unit setup. One Orbi is connected to your internet modem and the 2nd “satellite” Orbi is located near your living spaces. In my setup, my cable modem is located on one end of the home but we spend most of the time on the opposite side of the home on a different floor. We placed the satellite Orbi in the living room and we literally have zero dead spots. The Orbi looks great and easily blends in with our décor. It doesn’t look like a wifi router at all. No blinking lights or external antennas! To summarize, the Orbi is easy to setup and looks great blending with your décor. I have no more dead zones due to the 2 Orbi system. Not only do I have full wifi signal throughout the home and even to the sidewalk outside, I also get full speeds like im hard wired to my cable modem. Things that I do wish the Orbi has: WPS button, a more robust iphone app to manage the router and to add in guest network options, small activity lights. I would recommend this router for homes that want the fastest wifi with no wifi dead zones. I use to like all the options that other routers provided but the simplicity of this router is a breath of fresh air. I hope you found this review helpful!

After wasting my money on WiFi extenders, I came across an article about whole home WiFi. I'm going to post the signal speed from my WiFi extender and the speed from the Orbi satellite. They are maybe 6-7ft apart with no wall or anything in between the two. The WiFi extender and the Orbi satellite are both on the 1st floor over 100ft away from the cable modem/router and where the Orbi router is (on the 2nd floor). The pictures say enough about whether the Orbi Netgear works or not.

I've installed this set (Router + Satellite) and walked around the house with my tablet running speed test - I could not find a spot where my internet speed would be under 350 Mbit/s anywhere! WiFi signal strength is perfect thru the whole house, back yard, front yard - everywhere, so if you having wifi coverage problems - this set will solve most of them! Overall setup is extremely easy - connect to the modem with the included Ethernet cable, power on the router, power on the satellite, connect to the WiFi. Initial setup could be done via the router's web interface or a Netgear Genie mobile app. Satellite uses a separate backhaul network to communicate with the main router wirelessly (unlike a regular WiFi Range Extender) so your regular WiFi bandwidth is not reduced by the satellite presence. Backhaul network shows that it's operating at 1733Mbit/s even with the router and satellite being on a different levels at the opposite corners of my house.That internal link network does not show up on the clients WiFi network list and appears to be encrypted, password can be re-generated on the router for extra security. Satellite itself does not need any separate setup, but it will receive it's own IP address and it does have it's own simple web interface. Router configuration is pretty basic - built in DHCP server, NAT, port forwarding and port triggering. Parental controls present as well, allowing you to setup a list of the restricted web sites (or keywords found in the site names) and services. WiFi can be scheduled to turn on and off automatically as well. MAC address filtering is supported, WiFi authentication methods are limited to WPA and WPA2, this set does not support WPA2-Enterprise authentication (aka Radius server authentication). List of the attached devices will show device MAC, IP address, device name and connection type - wired or wireless, but no band or speed is available thru the web interface (speed and signal strength information is available via the Genie app). Built it logging is real good - router will create a log entry for all connection attempts, parental control violations and other security events and e-mail you the logs on the pre-defined schedule (when full, hourly or daily). There is no syslog support. Other supported features include: dynamic DNS support, basic IPv6, QoS, UPnP. Remote management (via Internet) is possible if configured. This set could be configured as a pure Access Point as well, if you already have a router which you prefer to use and just need a WiFi, all internal router features will be disabled in the Access Point mode. Unfortunately it's not possible to hardwire the satellite to the router, the only supported communication mode is via a dedicated wireless backhaul. Guest network is not yet supported, but I've heard that it's going to be available by the end of the 2016. Physically - router and the satellite look identical, and their physical dimensions allow to conceal them easily, for example I have my satellite between the couch and a wall - it fits perfect and is out of the way. Neither Router nor Satellite have any blinking lights during the normal operation, the only light is a power LED on the back. Router has 3 1Gbit/s LAN ports and Satellite has 4, both have USB 2.0 ports but they don't seem to be active right now, they probably will be with the future software updates. Overall: great WiFi coverage even with just the router itself, satellite doubles it. You'll say "good buy" to the "spotty" coverage, however router software features are pretty basic - it lacks Radius support, VPN, USB ports are not yet active.

Before I installed the Orbi I ran 5 separate speed tests on my laptop in various parts of our home. (3 story house - 2700 sq. ft). I ran tests from each floor of our house through our existing router (TP Link WR1043ND - a 300Mbps Wireless N Gigabit Router). Speeds averaged 43.76Mbps down and 4.35Mbps upload. After I installed the Orbi, I re-ran the same speed tests in the same locations and speeds now average 62.83Mbps down and 5.80Mbps upload. Significantly faster! The 2 spots in the house - top floor and basement both went from 28.56Mbps and 21.72 to 64.33 and 63.46 - so much better coverage. The Orbi's 2 unit setup of a base unit + satellite unit now provides equal coverage throughout the entire home. Setup was fairly easy, colored rings light up on the tops of the Orbi units let you visually know whether they are connected. (These go out after 10 seconds so no worries about them staying lit up at night.) I did have to reboot our cable modem twice to get the Orbi to see the internet, but that was about it. Setup a password - rename the Orbi default network name (SSID) to what you had before and our 11 wifi devices (AppleTv's, laptops, phones, and ipads) all reconnected automatically. The Orbi units have a nice modern look and feel to them, although the living room satellite unit we just tucked behind an 8x10 picture frame and you don't even know it's there. Psyched about the great speed improvements!!

This Orbi system is absolutely wonderful. It extended our coverage and speed.

The strength is good but the set up is a little challenging

Installed this wifi mesh because my daughters room kept dropping or buffering when watching TV. Installed the Orbi system and finally getting wifi speeds that I am paying for. The performance is great. Full wifi signal strength throughout the whole house now.

I had my doubts about the Orbi system. My new house might as well be a Faraday cage for how hard it is to push wi-fi through it. I should perhaps be happy about this because I assume that means that it is well built and not just flimsy walls. The latest gen modem/router from Fios could not get a signal to the front of my house from the back of it where my office and the router are located (the upstairs was even worse except for right above the office). We got by for a few months like that but eventually we got sick of it. I got the new Linksys Max Stream router with the eight antenna array that looks like a spaceship and it did quite a bit better but we still had some dead spots. This new Orbi system with the main router and the satellite took care of all our dead spots. It was the easiest router I have ever set up and I have been doing this for years. I plugged in the base station, went upstairs and plugged in the satellite and the hit the sync button. After both flashed white for about thirty seconds and then the satellite went magenta for maybe twenty seconds, they both lit up solid blue which means a good connection. I then logged on with my iPad which immediately took me to the set up screen where I could set the admin password and such, and once that was done they both updated to the latest firmware and that was it. I had beautiful wi-fi all around the house with nary a dead spot in sight. When I go the front of the house I see the bars drop from three to two but then it immediately picks up on the satellite router and bumps back up to three bars again. I only have one quibble with the Orbi system and that is that it lacks the WPS quick sync button that most new routers have but I only really needed that for my wireless printer but I had that on the Orbi system within minutes. Again, this was the most painless wireless router set-up I have ever had the pleasure to do. I am very happy with this system and I can't think of anyone that wouldn't be well-served by the Orbi router system. Get this system!

This is a great Wi-Fi solution for those that need improved coverage in their home or a network capable of handling faster speeds. My ISP (Internet Service Provider) originally installed their router in one corner on the first story of my 2 story home. That has prevented me from getting strong Wi-Fi signals throughout my home and especially on the 2nd floor. Netgear's Orbi to the rescue! I installed the primary Orbi router in a more central location on my first floor, running an ethernet cable behind my couch to my ISP router. I then installed the Orbi satellite on the 2nd story of my home in a convenient location. Pairing the Orbi router and satellite was simple and painless. Once I had the devices paired I connected my laptop and checked browsing speeds. Web pages loaded as fast as they ever have. I then ran speed tests in every corner of each story of my home and found that I was getting maximum speed everywhere. This set-up really accomplishes what it sets out to do. One bonus for the Orbi is that both the router and the satellite have 3 ethernet ports that you can hardwire devices to if you prefer that over wireless. That has provided me with 3 ethernet ports in my upstairs loft that I never had before in case I wanted to connect a non-wireless printer to the network or some other useful device. The speeds this unit is capable of are advertised at 3Gbps. I don't have a need for that fast of a speed yet, but if I needed to stream 4k content over Wi-Fi in the future, I am all set! I highly recommend the Netgear Orbi for taking your home network to the next level.

We haven’t had any issues with dropped Wifi since installing.

Leaves a small footprint but the WiFi signal is LARGE!

I was able to use my WiFi service in any of my rooms

Let me start off by saying that I am extremely happy with this product. I was having some serious connection issues between my Tivo Bolt and my Tivo Mini. They would lose connection with each other multiple times a day, requiring a restart of the router and the Linksys RE7000 range extender that I was using. The Bolt was plugged into the ethernet port on the RE7000 and the Tivo Mini was plugged directly into the router. *NOTE: Tivo doesn't recommend or support this type of set up, but wiring my house with Ethernet or setting up the MoCA network were not options. Anyways, I hooked up the ORBI and the only change I made was plugging the Tivo Bolt into the satellite Orbi and after a week, I have had no connection issues. The link between the Orbi units has been rock solid. I am VERY pleased! SETUP: I found the setup to be pretty straight forward. I first tried to use my Samsung Note7 to initiate the configuration, but the mobile web browser was not liking things, but once I switched to my laptop, it was smooth and easy to set up. There wasn't an app to use, but I used the web link that was provided in the paperwork. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is looking for a solution for a large house. The wifi coverage is great as well. I am getting a strong signal all through my 2500 sq ft house and all through the .33 acre of land that my property resides on. Update: received an email today from them with this new information: 1. As detailed on the box, login to http://orbilogin.com for setup instructions 2. Use the NETGEAR genie app to control your network (diagnose and repair issues, setup parental controls & more) 3. Guest networks will be coming by the end of 2016

Being high speed and up to date on tech is not high on my parents priority list at all. They are cool, and as long as things (ie. the internet) work, they are satisfied. My brother and I, we are a little more up to speed and while we were home for Christmas (always visit your family), my dad mentioned that Netflix programs were taking unusually long to load / lagging / pausing. I had bought them an Airport Extreme a few years ago, so I figured it had to be that (I also hardwired the modem to a desktop and it was clocking 150 while the wireless was like 25 max). I personally have an X8, so I brought it over to see how that would pan out... Still a weak connection. Problem is that my parents house is really big (3 floors, top floor spans out over half the second floor, and there is a basement.), with walls that divide the dining room / family room / kitchen ect. over 10k sq. feet. Whatever the walls are made of, absolutely haze wireless signals, and to add insult to injury, the room where the internet comes out of the wall towards the back of the 3rd level... I did my research and chose to go with Orbi because the house has a 150Mbps package and I wanted my parents to have that performance. With that said, I was pretty sure Orbi was going to fall short of the task, simply because this house is a wifi elephant graveyard: 1. First things first, Orbi does not look like the picture you have in your head right now. These things are seriously huge. When I opened the box, I literally laughed out loud because I knew I was going to have to explain what these 2 mega-huge flower-vase looking things are doing in our house. Seriously, I couldn't fathom Orbi could be as big as they are. Either way, I tucked it behind a picture frame and it was cool, but you should know it's way bigger than you can imagine in real life (so plan for that as I didn't). 2. I read all the complaints about the firmware and connections and stuff, so I downloaded the updates from Netgears website beforehand to install them manually. I brought both units to the same room so they could set up close to each other.. I had to turn off (unplug) the modem first, plug in the yellow ethernet cable into Orbi, plug the modem power cord back in, and then give power to each Orbi unit last. This establishes a new connection for the Orbi and Modem to use. Once connected, I did manual FW updates on both the S and R, and it took like 10-15 min to setup. It was very simple. 3. The router is in the back room upstairs and nothing can be done about that. I read that the router should be placed centrally in the house or whatever, but that wasn't possible and I went with the only option I had. The Satellite is on the floor below, maybe 50 feet away, but it is more centrally located in the house. The 2 units do not have a line of sight to one another, and I thought this might cause an issue. It didn't. 4. I can't believe that our entire house is covered with the 2 unit set. On the 2nd and 3rd floor, I get 165Mbps out of my macbook pro (AC) with full signal. I went down to the basement level (90% sure signal would not reach) and that too had full signal but the speed was 120. There is no 3rd satellite, making this set much stronger and wider than I thought it was going to do. Now if I'm going to drop $450 on a wireless router for my parents, it better meet my astronomical expectations. Surprisingly, it does, so I figured I would write the review I wanted to see out there for the next me and you. This thing consistently out clocks the 150mbps speed my parents pay for, and I just upgraded their service to 300mbps which will activate tomorrow. I am optimistic that Orbi will crank out 300 speed no problem all over the house. Its legit. If you are taking the time to read these reviews, you most likely face a architectural challenge like I did. Its expensive, but if you are on this level and you know what you want, you pay for what you get. Orbi delivers. Good luck.

The Orbi WiFi system is being marketed as a means to end those pesky dead spots in your home. And, to make a long story short, it surely does that at the very least. The package comes with a base router unit and a matching satellite unit - once they have been setup and synchronized, they operate throughout their combined ranges as if there were a single unit. And the satellite unit provides ports for four ethernet connections - the satellite acts like part of a wired router. Superficially, these units break the recent pattern of marketing bigger, bulkier routers with more and more antennas (antennas have never done anything to help me get better wireless distribution in my house). The Orbi’s are simple white ovaloids that manage to hustle signals around like a boss without looking like a bulked-up spider. The “Quick Start Guide” is sufficient for the simplest setup options - which were all I needed. There is a 100 page comprehensive manual online that appears to be well organized and well written - it outlines a ton of setup options that go far beyond what I understand - from my naive point of view, though, it looks like the units are highly configurable (and Netgear’s router setup utility is organized and very intuitive). The only real selling point for any wireless system, though, should be its ability to communicate. The number of bars you see don’t tell you anything valuable about communication - I can connect to my old signal and my new Orbi signal from two houses down but communication isn’t too spiffy down there. What was really a selling point, though, what the difference the Orbi satellite made in the bedroom of my home - my own annoying dead spot. I attached (below) screen-grabs from SpeedTest.net scans before/after Orbi during a peak usage time - with Orbi in my room, the download speed is showing at about 10x the download speed I was getting with my old wireless router. SpeedTest might not be a perfect tool for comparisons, but it’s probably a tool many people are familiar with (I use WiFi Scanner on my MacBook Air and it’s consistently showing download speeds with Orbi of nearly 175 Mbps which is closer to the advertised actual speeds from my ISP). I only have three issues with the Orbi system: (1) it took me a while to get the units synchronized and operational during the initial setup because there was a firmware mismatch between the units that I didn’t notice during setup - these are not plug-and-play units and I probably have gotten less attentive in my old age but I find it strange that the units shipped with conflicting firmwares, (2) the status of the synchronization is communicated through confusing colors and patterns of LED lights coming from the rings on top of the units - for example the LED’s will always pulse magenta during the synchronization process but solid magenta means that the satellite is too far from the base unit - why would you show an interim color that matches the color used to indicate a problem, & (3) the only post-setup problem I experienced was caused by my satellite losing synchronization with the base unit - all of my computers closest to the base unit were fine but my computer close the the satellite was freaking out about certificates and refused to resolve web pages - it would have been helpful if the units had lit-up again to indicate the synchronization had been broken - it took me a long time to figure out why one computer would suddenly refuse to work with the Orbi’s. I’ll add one additional petty observation - both the “Quick Start Guide” and the official “Manual” show the base unit as having a BLUE top to differentiate it from the satellite unit which has a white top - I just noticed that in the manual this morning and I had to check the units in bright light to notice the difference - the top of the base unit is the lightest blue that can technically be called blue. But back to performance - I’ve never seen any download speeds over about 25 Mbps on my remote laptop here - with the Orbi satellite here, I’m showing rates that are consistently around 150 Mbps. I don’t even get communication like that right next to my old router.

Everything about the Netgear Orbi system is well designed, even the packaging. In the box, you get the Orbi Router, Orbi Satellite, a 2m Ethernet cable, two 12V/3.5A power adapters, and a quick start guide. These items are organized and appealingly presented in the box. Orbi is one of the best looking WiFi systems I have seen. Our family has always tried to hide previous internet routers because they can be an eyesore with their large size and antennas sticking out. However, the Orbi is pleasing to the eye, so we no longer mind having a visible router. I like the modern, stylish look and the small size. Setting up the Orbi system was quick and easy. I was surprised by how basic the quick start guide was and, based on past experiences with different routers, I was not convinced that it would actually be that simple, but it was! Within minutes after placing the router and satellite in the desired location, plugging in the power adapters, and downloading the mobile app that assists with setup, I was connected to the internet. The simple, customer-friendly setup is a fantastic feature of the Netgear Orbi. The range that this Orbi WiFi system can reach is very impressive. The combination of the router and satellite is not only capable of covering up to a 4000 sq ft home but also providing a strong signal and high speeds wherever you may be in your home. We do not have a large enough home to truly test this to its limits, but I have been impressed with the speed and reliability, especially in the areas of my home that I use to get a weak signal and slower speeds. In addition, Orbi uses Tri-band WiFi, so max speeds can be delivered to many devices at once. Since our home has a variety of wireless devices connected to the internet, such as gaming systems or Blu-ray players, the Tri-band really helps keep our network fast and reliable. I am very impressed with the Netgear Orbi, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade their home WiFi system.

Summary: This is essentially two routers sharing a single SSID and it works as promised. The router automatically determines the best connection resulting in seamless coverage. While it is easy to set up and the designs is nice, it is lacking features other routers in the price range offers such as file sharing and USB 3.0 port. Currently the USB port is inactive till future expansion, and the power brick is huge. Guess network has not yet been implemented. Good: Simple set up Nice design Single seamless SSID App for remote management Bad: No file sharing No USB 3.0 USB 2.0 is inactive Big power adapter Price Setting the router was simple and was one of the quickest routers I've set up. During set up there's a light ring that tells you how good your signal is for your satellite. Once connected, the setup wizard took care of the rest. What I really like about this router is that there's one SSID, unlike most router/extender which usually have separate ID that you have to choose. It automatically determines which band your device uses (2.4 or 5) and pair the device to router or satellite that has the best connection. I have the router in the corner of the house and the satellite in the living room and I get full bars in my yard with no weak spots. The aesthetic fits well with most home decor and doesn't have the aggressive design that other high end routers have. I can put this in the living room and not have it stand out. It's wrapped in rubber so it doesn't look plasticy. The router has three Ethernet port and the satellite has four. While the Orbi functions well, it's missing some features that are already common among other routers. First the USB 2.0 port should not be on modern devices. I have cheaper and older routers that had USB 3.0. Secondly, as of this review, the USB port is also inactive, which means no using external storage devices for file sharing. Even if this feature is included in the future, the USB 2.0 would be very slow. This router also has the biggest power brick I've seen. If you have tight space around your outlet or powerstrip, this thing will not fit. While these aren't deal breakers, I would hesitate choosing this over other routers in the this price range. If you need a router that offers wide coverage with easy setup and don't mind the lacking of file sharing, then this might be what you want.

As a content creator and live streamer, dependable internet is non-negotiable. Since upgrading to the Netgear Orbi AC3000 mesh system, the difference has been night and day. Setup and Coverage Installation was simple and took less than 20 minutes. The two-pack system easily blankets my entire home, including upper floors and even the backyard. Before Orbi, I dealt with constant signal drops in my streaming room, but those issues are completely gone. Speed and Stability The Orbi system consistently delivers high-speed internet throughout the house, with no noticeable slowdowns even when multiple devices are connected. Upload speeds remain strong during streams, video calls, and large file uploads. I regularly stream at 1080p and 4K without a single frame drop or stutter. Streaming Performance This system has been a game-changer for my Twitch and YouTube streams. The dedicated tri-band connection keeps my stream data separate from everything else happening on the network. Even during high-traffic times when other users are gaming or streaming videos, my stream remains smooth and uninterrupted. Low Latency I’ve also noticed reduced latency when gaming and streaming at the same time. The Orbi holds a consistent connection with minimal ping spikes, making it ideal for competitive gameplay and high-quality live broadcasts. Build and Reliability The units are larger than standard routers, but they’re sleek and easy to position for optimal performance. I’ve had the system running for months without needing to reset or troubleshoot—just set it and forget it. Pros: • Wide, consistent coverage with no dead zones • Strong and stable upload speeds ideal for streaming • Seamless roaming across mesh points • Reliable tri-band performance for multi-device homes • Simple setup with strong long-term reliability Cons: • Higher price than standard routers • Slightly bulky design compared to compact mesh units • Not Wi-Fi 6, though it still competes closely in real-world use Final Verdict: If you’re serious about streaming and want rock-solid Wi-Fi performance across your home, the Netgear Orbi AC3000 is an excellent investment. It offers consistent speeds, wide coverage, and the reliability that content creators need to deliver professional streams without worry.